Opinion
Yesterday we reported that conservative comedian Shane Gillis had teamed up with Bud Light after the brand lost hundreds of millions of dollars last year following its collaboration with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Now, this move backfired, as fans turned against Gillis for doing so.
Gillis criticized for teaming up with Bud Light
Gillis, 36, announced he was partnering with the beer company in an Instagram post tagged “paid partnership with Bud Light.”
“Excited to announce the partnership with Bud Light #budlightpartner,” Gillis wrote.
Unfortunately for Gillis, though, fans immediately roasted him in the comments section of this post.
“Bud Light is trying so hard and you are burned out, well done,” one user commented, with another adding: “Shout out to Budlight for working with disabled people!”
“Dylan Mulshaney,” a third user commented. A fourth person wrote: “First year of womanhood for you too.”
This was a reference to Bud Light celebrating Mulvaney’s “365 days of childhood” last April by giving the transgender influencer a commemorative can.
Bud Light celebrates partnership with Gillis
Despite the backlash, Bud Light stands by Gillis.
“Welcome to the @shanemgillis team, excited to be a part of your 2024 tour,” Bud Light said on Instagram.
Todd Allen, Bud Light’s vice president of marketing, celebrated the partnership with Gillis.
“Humor has always been at the heart of the Bud Light brand and at the heart of our ‘Easy Enjoyment’ platform,” he told Fox News. “We’re thrilled to partner with longtime Bud Light fan Shane Gillis for his 2024 Live Comedy Tour, where having fun with friends is always easy to enjoy.”
This comes as Bud Light sales continue to slump, with sales in the first two weeks of 2024 down 28.9% from a year earlier, according to the Daily Mail. This is largely because conservatives have launched a highly affective boycott of Bud Light against the brand that partners with transgender influencer Mulvaney.
Related: Bud Light teams up with conservative comedian Shane Gillis after Dylan Mulvaney debacle
Gillis addresses Bud Light’s Mulvaney debacle
Gillis addressed the fallout from Bud Light and Mulvaney while appearing on “The Joe Rogan Experience” last year.
“It’s become a joke, and it’s hard to overcome from a marketing perspective,” Gillis said at the time. “It’s hard to get people to publicly order a Bud Light because you’ll get ridiculed.”
“They should hire the Rock kid as a spokesperson,” host Joe Rogan responded, according to Newsweek.
“We talked about it last night, it would be the best thing,” Gillis continued in agreement.
Related: Bud Light Attempts Comeback With New Super Bowl Ad After Dylan Mulvaney Debacle
Gillis eliminated from ‘SNL’
Gillis is a conservative comedian who was targeted by cancel culture in 2019, when he was dropped from the cast of “Saturday Night Live!” just five days after it was announced that he would be joining the show. Gillis was reportedly fired after jokes surfaced that he had made on a podcast years earlier that some believed were both racist and homophobic.
“After speaking with Shane Gillis, we have decided that he will not be joining ‘SNL,’” the sketch comedian said at the time, according to Fox News. “We were unaware of his previous remarks that had surfaced in recent days. The language he used was offensive, insulting and unacceptable. We regret that we did not see these clips sooner and that our review process was not up to our standards.”
The partnership with Gillis was a clear and desperate attempt by Bud Light to win back the conservative consumers it lost by partnering with Mulvaney. Unfortunately for both Gillis and Bud Light, however, this move appears to have blown up in each of their faces.
Do you think it’s simply too late for Bud Light to make a comeback, or is there still a chance for the brand? Let us know in the comments section.
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